India will start thorium based Reactor project in next 18 months

“Under the third stage of nuclear programme based on thorium utilisation, a reactor of 300 MW will be constructed in a year and a half from now..,” Kalpakkam-based Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research Director, Mr S.C. Chetal, told reporters here.
 
“The work for that will commence in the next Five-Year Plan,” he said on the sidelines of a function.
 
According to Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), the currently known thorium reserves in India amount to 3,58,000 GWe-yr of electrical energy and can “easily meet the energy requirements during the next century and beyond.”
 
Mr Chetal said, a technology to separate uranium from thorium was being developed by BARC in the third phase of its nuclear programme.
 
collaborations
India was also having collaboration with France and the US.
 
“We will have reactors at different parts of the country… at Jaitapur in Maharashtra with the help of the French (1,650 MW) and with US, sites are being identified and target for nuclear energy is 20,000 MW. Today we have 4,780 MW,” he said.
 
Asked whether States were keen to set up nuclear power facilities, he replied in the affirmative.